Large truck trailers and many garages contain an overhead door constructed from longitudinal panels joined together and supported by rollers that ride in a pair of door tracks. The door tracks typically are positioned on the outer walls of the door opening and extend vertically upward from the floor of the opening to the top of the opening, where they then extend backward in a horizontal direction slightly below the roof of the enclosure. A door track for use with this type of overhead door usually has a ridge or overhang extending from each of its edge surfaces to prevent the door rollers contained within the door track from becoming dislodged. During normal operation, the rollers of the overhead door travel within the door track and allow the door to be easily moved from its closed vertical position to an open horizontal position where the entire door is supported by the horizontal section of the door track.
While this type of overhead door works very well and is widely used, several problems can occur which cause the door rollers to become dislodged from the door track. For example, problems can occur if the door track somehow becomes deformed by either continuous use or as a result of a violent act, such as a piece of cargo contained within the truck trailer striking the door track. If the track is deformed, when a roller passes the deformed portion of the track, the roller will oftentimes become dislodged from the track. With a roller dislodged from the track, the overhead door will often become jammed and therefore be nearly inoperable. Fixing this situation is often a very difficult process, since the dislodged roller must somehow be forced back into the strong metal door track which, because of the overhang, has an opening smaller than the diameter of the dislodged roller. In many cases, the trailer has to be brought into a repair shop where there are proper tools to reinsert the dislodged roller, which is obviously a large inconvenience.
Along with the rigidity of the door track, other problems may also stem from the position at which the roller is located when it becomes dislodged. Since many garage doors and overhead trailer doors are often 8 to 9 feet in height, it can be very difficult to get into a position the work on the dislodged roller if the roller or the track area to be repaired are at such heights. Further adding to the problem, many overhead doors weight several hundred pounds and are therefore very hard to move.
Another cause of problems, particularly with an overhead door of a truck trailer, is that a roller may become dislodged when the truck trailer travels over a large bump or hole in the pavement. The sudden vibration or shock to the trailer can cause one or several of the door rollers to become dislodged from the door track. With a roller dislodged, it becomes very difficult to move the trailer door in either an upward or a downward direction, thus disrupting many loading or unloading schedule for the trailer.
Therefore, it can be appreciated that an assembly that would reinsert an overhead door roller which has become disengaged from the door track would be desirable, especially for use with a truck, trailer or garage door assembly.